Remembering the bitter winter of 1977

Despite bringing six weeks of unusually low temperatures to Hampton Roads, the winter of 1977 can't match the still more epic deep freezes that struck here in 1780, 1857 and 1918, when residents could not only walk but also drive wagons or cars across the ice-packed James, York and Elizabeth rivers. But after some of the coldest readings in two decades gripped the region earlier this week, the frigid blast that froze waterways and covered the landscape with snow 37 years ago was what many readers remembered. Here's a look at some of the images the Daily Press captured at the height of January 1977 cold wave. -- Click here to find more Hampton Roads History photo galleries. Mark St. John Erickson (Daily Press file photo)

Mark St. John Erickson, merickson@dailypress.com

When the coldest temperatures recorded in two decades gripped Hampton Roads earlier this week, the brutal 1977 winter that froze the region's waterways and covered its landscape with snow was what many readers remembered.

"The month of January 1977 never went above freezing," said reader David Roselius, questioning a pair of stories that focused on the still more epic deep freezes of 1780, 1857 and 1918.

"All of the major rivers froze," reader Jim Wassum said, in a similar message sent by email.

"I moved into my house on Chesapeake Ave in 1976," a Hampton reader who identified himself only as "Jerry" said on the phone.

"Shortly thereafter we had a cold streak that because of the tides and winds stacked up ice on the Hampton side of the shore up about a foot or so and the frost sent it way out into the river."

Those vivid memories got their start late in 1976, when the first in an unusually extended series of arctic blasts sent the region into a 6-week long deep freeze.

From Christmas through Jan. 27, the nightly low temperatures in Hampton Roads did not climb above freezing, though several daytime highs reached the high 40s and mid-50s.

The average low through the morning of Feb. 9 — when cold spell finally broke — hovered around 20 degrees, and from Jan. 17 to 19 the thermometer plunged to record-setting single digits.

As early as Jan. 3, adventurous teens were testing a growing sheet of ice that reached several hundred feet into the James River at the James River Bridge.

That same day, however, two Isle of Wight boys drowned after crashing through the ice on a shallow pond that was only partly frozen.

By Jan. 16, the Daily Press was describing the prolonged freeze as "our coldest weather in over a decade."

"Very VERY cold," the front page weather forecast read, predicting a low of about 10 degrees and a high around 20.

But the next morning the actual reading sank to 5 degrees.

What resulted at the Surry nuclear power plant later that day was an ice clog that stopped up the cooling water intake pipes and shut the reactor down.

Yet by the time a Coast Guard ice breaker arrived to provide help, a team of commercial tugs had already broken the ice pack apart after navigating over to the shore from the still open channel.

Across the river, the Jamestown-Scotland ferry made it handily through the frigid waters, too, but was unable to land because of the thick ice floe choking the docks.

Asked when the boat would attempt the crossing again, one of the crew members answered: "When the ice melts."

By Jan. 22, the National Weather Service was reporting "that the James River is almost completely covered with ice from Richmond downstream — with the average depth of the ice 3 to 4 inches."

Some 3,000 watermen across the state were iced in as a result, forcing the state to create a special unemployment fund as part of its emergency response to the brutal weather.

At Denbigh Plantation in Newport News, the shoreline ice eventually grew so thick that it supported an errant car, Wassum recalled in his message.

At Lake Maury in Newport News, however, the deceptive ice failed to support a 6-year-old boy who fell through and drowned while taking an adventurous walk with his brother.

Such reports contrast sharply with the winters of 1780, 1857 and 1918, when residents could not only walk but also drive wagons or cars completely across the ice-packed James, York and Elizabeth rivers.

But by end of January no one in Hampton Roads cared about anything but relief from a bitter cold weather spell that stretched back to Christmas.

"Huge masses of cold air affecting Tidewater have been building since late autumn," the weather service explained near the end of the month.